Personally,this is why I love music topics,because I'm interested in everyone's opinions,and speaking of the Ozzy years I've been scouring You Tube and have realized I'm going to have to add more Sabbath to the ipod,like this great tune

Sabbra Cadabra
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Born Again is a very good album musically, but it's probably the one I was most dissappointed in. Tony's riff on Zero the Hero is stinking fantastic! I think it may be his best on just pure rocktitude, but those god awful lyrics that Ian sings just ruin that song. Bands rarely do a redo on their own song, but that riff is so good that they should. Keep the verse, toss that stupid chorus and make the coolest Sabbath song ever. I'd also put Digital Bitch in this category as well. - Still a rocking album though and Ian does sound good.

All in all, I'd have to say based purely on the songs and not who's sing them, the Ozzy Era was the best. That's not entirely due to Ozzy, but rather more to do with the music Tony, Geezer and Bill were creating. In fact, Geezer Butler has said many times that it was he and not Ozzy that wrote the majority of their lyrics. He said that if they left Ozzy to write them that there wouldn't have been any lyrics. And when Ozzy did sing, he just chanted along with the guitar. Whereas, Dio actually sang, composed, and wrote all of his own lyrics. I won't say I don't like Ozzy. His moanful sounding voice was perfect for the band's sound, but Black Sabbath certainly didn't live and die by Ozzy. At least that's my opinion.

There have been a few "other" singers in Sabbath. Most have been completely forgettable, but there was actaully a few songs I liked by Tony Martin. I had a few of his albums and there were some good songs on TYR (like Jerusalem), and some on Broken Cross (Well, something cross anyway...).
But none of his albums seemed like Black Sabbath to me. Did any one every see Tony Martin live with Sabbath? I wonder if they even played any of the classic Sabbath songs. That might be interesting to hear.

Oh, I saw Heaven and Hell last year! They were so stinking awesome! The headlined along with Queensryche and Alice Cooper. It was an extremely long concert and every one of the bands hit an absolute home run that night, but H&H was by far the star of the show. Extremely tight musically and the set was amazing. Dio doesn't sound like he's aged a bit. I actually hit notes in his range that I didn't know he had. He did this screech on Mob Rules that was unbelievable. Dio is like the opposite of Robert Plant, he's actually gotten better with age. LOL! If H&H do put out a CD, I'll definitely buy it. I already have the DVD, and Dio Years album.

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children of the sea with Tony Martin

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Changes w/ tony martin

My friend had tickets to see Sabbath w/Dio in '92 (or somewhere around then) Dio fell out with the band again and Tony Martin took over. that happened a week before the concert my friend was going to. He was so pissed he just tore the tickets up.

as bad as Martin was, he sounded better than Gillan and Rob Halford when they performed live with Sabbath

I agree on both counts. Great songs, but the lyrics left something to be desired.

I saw that tour, too, when it hit St. Charles. It was awesome from start to finish. It's hard to say who was best, because each band shined in its own forte. Queensryche was musically the tightest, but the showmanship was a little nondescript. Alice Cooper definitely stole the show in terms of showmanship, as everyone expected he would. H&H was much tighter than Alice musically, and much better than Queensryche in show (nobody can command a stage like Iommi - he's just got an elegant stage presence like no other), so they probably had the best overall performance. Still, I'd say Alice was the most memorable. This year, H&H is heading out (to the highway) with Judas Priest and Testament. That'll be another show to die for, especially if Skolnick is performing again with Testament, as I've heard he is! I met him after a TSO show one year - very, very awesomely nice guy!

Yeah, as much as I love Rob Halford (damn near worship the guy), his voice doesn't mesh with Sabbath's style, sad to say.

I'm going to see Motorhead, Sabbath and Judas Priest in a few weeks.

Oh yeah, I forgot Motorhead is going out with them for the first part of the tour. They are getting replaced by Testament at some point, but I'm not sure when.

I was a huge Rainbow fan in high school and sort of followed Dio over to Black Sabbath. Saw them in Portland on the "Heaven and Hell" tour. :thumb: I was also a fan of Ozzy's solo stuff by then and, for some reason, never really got into the Ozzy era Sabbath (though I have heard most of it). I haven't listened to any of the post-Dio Sabbath.

You're right Cooper hasn't lost bit of this talent either. He was definitely amazing, and I believe that it was Eric Singer (formerly of KISS) that was drumming for him. The drum solo I saw had two guitarists joining him. It was amazing. Of course, Vinnie Appice's solo was a amazing too! And did you see Bill Ward at that show? At the show in Fresno, Bill was sitting right across from me in the sound booth. I was suprised to see him there. I was hoping he'd get up on stage, but he never did. Also, did you hear Queensryche do their cover of Welcome to the Machine? I thought they sounded amazing on that. I thought Queensrche was a little subtle in their Performance, and didn't get to see the Dio/Tate duet that I wanted to see, but the old one is on Youtube I guess...

Man, Testament, Priest and H&H would be fantastic. I'll have to check if that's coming near me. Motorhead would be great too. Would be cool to see Scholnick back with Testament.

I'm a sucker for Sabbath covers. I love Halford covering "the Wizard," and I think I've heard him do a version of "Children of the Grave" that was pretty great too. The covers I love best though is Bruce Dickinson doing "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath," Faith No More doing "War Pigs" (from the Real Thing album not the awful live version), and System of Down doing their bizarre version of "Snowblind"...cracks me up when Serj says "Cookie!"

Sweet Leaf: All time favorite tune of theirs. Sure, the other stuff was good, but the (fuzz) bass line was great. Uh-HUH-Uh-HUH-Uh-HUH-Uh-Huh!

I did enjoy "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," and "Sabotage."

Ronnie James Who?

That's awesome, thanks! Martin sounds great on Children of the Sea, actually quite a bit like Dio. Wasn't too thrilled with Changes, but that's one of my least favorite Sabbath songs anyway.

Got to see Sabbath on the Technical Ecstacy tour at Memorial Hall in KCK. That album wasn't the best, but the boys were on that night. Geezer and Bill were an amazing rhythm section live. Tony is always top notch and Ozzy put on a good frontman show. They did play a lot of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Paranoid which was what we were hoping to hear. Sweet Leaf and NIB are two of my early faves.
Saw H&H and Mob Rules tours with Dio and both were awesome. I love RJD as a vocalist, one of the best metal voices evah. I've liked him since ELF and am still amazed that he can sing like that to this day.

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Thanks for passing me the doob at the show at Memorial, man!